Kaye Don
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Kaye Don began his motor racing career by winning the 1928 Ards Tourist Trophy race, held in Northern Ireland, driving a Lea-Francis. In February 1928, he was one of 4 drivers, led by D Marendaz, to set a Class G (1100cc) 24 Hour record of 58 mph, at Montlhery, driving an Anzani-engined Marendaz car. The 6-cylinder Sunbeam "Cub" held the world record for 200 miles. The 12-cylinder Sunbeam "Tiger" racing car twice held the outer lap record at the Brooklands circuit. On 22nd September 1928, a record was set at 131.76 mph, and this was increased to 134.24 mph on 5th August 1929. At Montlhery on 21st March 1929, co-driving a Chrysler Model 72 production car with Ernest Eldridge, a Class C 24-hour record was set at an average speed of 72.5mph. On 1st July 1929, at Brooklands, a world record was set for 1 mile from a standing start, at a speed of 100.77 mph. On 23rd September 1929, at Brooklands, he set a new world record for 200 kilometres at an average speed of 194.60 km/hour. The following year, on 9th June 1930, his 4-Litre V-12 Sunbeam "Tigress" set a new outer circuit lap record at 137.58 mph. The Sunbeam-built "Silver Bullet" was designed to reach 250 mph, and break Segrave's record in 1930 at Daytona. It had two 24-litre supercharged aero engines each developing 2000 H.P. Due to a mixture of mechanical problems and poor weather, the car never exceeded 200 mph. In February 1932, he returned to Montlhery co-driving a 4 litre Delage with George Eyston & Albert Denly , setting World records for 1000 kms, 6 hours, 1000 miles & 2000 kms, and the Class C (3-5 litre) record for 12 hours. In 1933, Don & Eyston, driving a ............................ Driving a Bugatti T54, he finished 2nd in the British Empire Trophy race, held at Brooklands on 1st July 1933.
Web Links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaye_Don http://www.racingcampbells.com/content/campbell.archives/silver.bullet.asp http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/Transport/Cars/Sunbeam/Bullet.htm http://www.historicracing.com/driversAlpha.cfm?fullText=3293&AlphaIndex=D http://www.brooklandsarchives.com/ Look in Galleries S2, S4 & S5 http://www.sunbeam.org.au/gallery/index.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunbeam_Tiger_%281925%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Bullet_%28car%29 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/337680
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